C. Day Lewis (1904–1972) Song LINKS No links found. BIOGRAPHY C. Day Lewis (1904–1972) Born in Ireland, son of a minister, Cecil Day Lewis began writing poetry at age six. He attended Oxford, taught for seven years, served as editor for the Ministry of Information (1941–1946), was professor of poetry at Oxford (1951–1956), and visiting professor at Harvard (1964–1965). His early works From Feathers to Iron (1931) and The Magnetic Mountain (1933) reflect a politically radical ideology, but Lewis mellowed enough to be named poet laureate in 1968. From 1935 to 1964 he wrote nearly two dozen detective novels under the pseudonym Nicholas Blake. He commented, "In my young days, words were my antennae, my touch-stones, my causeway over a quaking bog of mistrust."